Just days before Zimbabwe’s general election next Monday, the country’s largest opposition coalition, the MDC Alliance, on Wednesday found itself in the kind of fix that was a common feature among opposition parties in previous elections. It faces the nagging question: should it boycott the election or participate? If it opts for the first option, it will have to ignore all the indications of an electoral process that still deeply favours Zanu-PF. The governing party enjoys airplay on state media, use of state resources to oil its election campaign and control of the security structures, the police and army. But the leader of the seven-party alliance, Nelson Chamisa, on Wednesday chose to soldier on. The decision is similar to that made by his predecessor, Morgan Tsvangirai, the late founding leader of the MDC, in 2013. Tsvangirai ignored pleas by regional leaders that he withdraw from the July 31 election until all electoral reforms had been implemented. Similarly, at a media brief...
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